16 Mar 2016

The first step to saving the planet

We are in the crazy "time savings" season right now, meaning that people are facing needless confusion, missed flights and numerous "whoops" emails as some countries switch their clocks this week, some next week and some not at all.

Daylight savings, like "fat is bad for you," was invented as a means of saving energy based on a very simple model of how people sleep, work and spend their evenings. There's abundant evidence that the "tradition" does not actually do that any more (if ever), but the policy stumbles along like a zombie, reliabily screwing up our schedules twice a year. (I'm not sure if it's better or worse that all my computers automatically change their time, but my microwave does not. I just stand there, confused.)

Anyway, the title of this post suggests that we humans need to make a few brave steps if we are going to act as a community in saving the planet. We know that it's necessary to reduce use of fossil fuels, stop deforestation, and so on, but those steps are "too complicated" for governments that are either too corrupt or incompetent to plan for their citizens' (near) future.

I therefore suggest that we start by ending daylight savings, to show all the countries in the world how we, as a species, can indeed join hands, sing Kumbaya, and end such a hopeless, barbaric, wasteful and destructive practice.

Bottom Line A long journey begins with the first step: End the Daylight Savings failure.